Success Vs. Efficacy

For those of you who have been faithful to my blog…I apologize for not updating it that frequently but the Lord hit me with something today so here goes:

I am studying the 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership by John Maxwell and there was an insight in Chapter 1 that I thought was hot. He gives a chart but I will attempt to explain it in words. Essentially he says that just about anyone can achieve success. Try to imagine a chart with a vertical line and a horizontal line. On the horizontal line you have success from 1 to 10. On the the vertical line you have leadership from 1-10. The measure of overall effectiveness is the combination of success and leadership. If I had a 1 on success but a 10 in leadership, I would have a skinny vertical rectangle. If I had a 10 in success but a 1 on leadership, I would have a skinny horizontal triangle….get the picture?

The thing that hit me was that even if I was really successful but was not a good leader, my overall effectiveness would be very low. I think that as a culture we put a lot of value on success. If someone makes allot of money, accumulates a lot and has a lot of status and notoriety…we think he/she is the man/woman. But is success the goal or is it effectiveness. If success is the goal, then we’re selfish cause success has a lot to do with me.

 Seeing this chart in the book convinced me that no matter how good I get at what I do (event planning, speaking, leading small groups etc…), if I don’t get really good at leadership, my life won’t have much effect. What is leadership you may ask? Influence…..If I can not only win myself but figure out how to multiply myself and make everyone win…then I’ll be effective.

Hope that wasn’t too wordy (-:

 

Chris